What will be discussed is the elements of form and dissolution, the discrepancies between meaning and manner, between profits of decay and the state of man. However perhaps the most interesting aspect is that of the correlation between Venice’s decline and Ashenbach struggle. This conflict is the same as we see today between the destruction and confusion that Modernism has erupted. Our Postmodern society is frayed with ambiguity and fragmentation. The decline of our own morality and our own purpose is still concurrent with that of our city. The search for truth has become a notion tainted by its own paradoxical character. The question is where does man go from here? Or is it merely that like Ashenbach, we remain struggling within ourselves. Works cited will comprise the question of Lyotard’s Postmodern theory attributed to Nietzsche and the question of Nihilism. As well as Structuralism and Deconstructionalist activity with reference to Derrida Barthes and Foucault.
Category: 2006
For my project I chose the coastal area incorporating North Shields, Tynemouth , Whitley Bay and Wallsend. In each area I analysed the changes in society and industry that occurred since the industrial revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century. In my investigation many recurring narratives arose such as the effects of the industrial revolution and its decline and the rise of “Drinking Culture”. Both highlighted the evolution of the technology and the postmodern change in personal relationships and social structures. The coastal region has undergone major changes throughout history. During the 19th and early 20th century the industrial revolution heralded a boom period in the North East. Its mines and yards produced the ships and coal that powered the British empire. However the fall of the British empire ended the North East’s industrial prosperity. In my project I will look at how this has affected the people of the North East focusing on the work of Marx and Hegel who introduced the notion of evolution into history. I will also use more contemporary writers such as David Harvey to fully comprehend the changes that have occurred, such as the fragmentation of our culture and the class system within society. I will also be looking at the effects of modernity and postmodernity on the architectural makeup of the coast line.
Aim: The main objective of this project is to, firstly, assess whether as humans we actually possess a moral and ethical basis. Then to discover where this ethical and moral basis originated from. Then to move on to investigating its position in the law, looking closely as the philosophy of law itself. Following this, a critique of capital punishment provides us with reasons we give for such punishment, which are based on a diverse number of reasons. I intended to answer the following questions: Are morals innate to us? What part do ethics and morals play in justice? Do we have the right to punish and imprison other human beings? Concepts: Having researched the subject and attempted to answer the above questions, a number of clear cut concepts began to emerge as integral to my project. Firstly, that morals originated from basic needs through hominid evolution to maintain survival, and were in fact merely behavioural requirements for the well-being of group living. Secondly, that the split between those who view morality and law as overlapping and those who don’t is extremely lucid. Thirdly, law is distinguished as a system of norms vastly different from all other norms. During the project I came to see that the arguments for and against capital punishment are similar, but argue different sides of the same fence. For example, those against argue that it debases the intrinsic value of human life. While those for argue that the only way to value the life lost it to take that of the perpetrator. Sources: For this project I used a number of sources, including books covering philosophy of law, Kant’s moral philosophy, Mill and utilitarianism, and general books which focused specifically on the law judicial system itself. Some internet resources on psychology were also of interest. The main body of text however, will be referring to Immanuel Kant, Thomas Hobbes and John Stuart Mill.
Objectives: The main objective for this project is to look at counselling. With the main focus upon University counselling services, particularly focusing on Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria University counselling services. Looking at what the need for counselling is and how the service functions. Concepts: looking at the advances in technology, and how these advancements may affect the masses. The focus is upon the change that has occurred in the formation of identity, with advertising being entwined into peoples lives, with television, internet etc. my intention is also to look at how things could work out, focusing on a children’s novel entitled Feed, which is set far into the future when technology is integral to life, and all people are fitted with a chip in their brains which enables them to connect to the internet at all times. I will be focusing on the implications of such a society, with such integral technology. Key Terms: • Subject/object distinction • Counselling • Reality as indefinable • Existentialist autonomy • Causality • Technological evolution • Social Positivism • Transcendence • Reality and Hyper reality
Territory: All Saints Church, Hannington; a small country church, in the village of Hannington in Hampshire. Situated in the centre of the village, it is both physically, and spiritually the core of the village. As well as Sunday Worship the church is used for Women’s Institute meetings and play groups and holds lots of village history, for example the millennium tapestry, and engraved windows of Rose Hodgson and William Whistler. Major Concepts: The main aim of my project is to prove that the loss of strict dogma in society from a universal law or code of practice is problematic, as it has caused the decline in morality that we witness in society today. * My main focus is on the Ten Commandments from Exodus Chapter 20. It is evident that numbers 5-10 are still important in society to both believers and non-believers. Whilst before the importance lay upon the Christian doctrine, now society enforces Laws. * There is a difference now in which crimes are punishable, as the rise in science has made all things measurable. We can empirically verify if for example a rape has happened through DNA testing, whereas in the past it was one person’s word against another’s. This dependence on scientific fact extracts from the importance of faith and resembles a reason for the decline in religious belief: people do not believe what they cannot see, and therefore do not trust in a metaphysical God. Philosophers: My main focus will be upon Kant, using his Moral Law and Categorical Imperative which states, “Act only on a maxim, which has the possibility of becoming a universal law”. Whilst Kant only infers that God ought to be true rather than is true, a good Kantian is a good Christian as he infers that one must be moral to everyone at all times. * I will also study Foucault, particularly relating to his ideas on madness in Madness and Civilisation, in which he asserts to us that the rise in science has amounted to a change in society, for people who were considered mad were let out of the mental institutions in the 1980’s as they passed a scientific test. Clearly here, society is being measured, in the same way that proof in the law is measured, meaning one’s relation to oneself is measured and laws are no longer a priori moral truths. I hope to prove that whilst in a dogmatic society individuals strive to be unique, in the free society we live in, citizens strive to be like everyone else but also place themselves way above everyone else, causing a lack of community feel and a rise in immoral behaviour.
Territory: Southlands Special Secondary School in Tynemouth, Newcastle. By basing my research here, I have gained valuable primary information through interviews, observations and conversations on Special Education. Abstract: Education as a whole has seen a mass amount of change since the age of Plato and Socrates, however in this project it is a sub form of education that I am exploring, Special Education. Unlike mainstream education, special education has had to deal with different criticisms to achieve the place in acceptable society that it has now, as it suffered from a lot of discrimination, as did the children that were labelled as ‘special’. Now they have a Special Educational Needs and Disability Act to protect them, so I aim to see if these adjustments have substantially improved how they are perceived in the education system and also if they are taught fairly and correctly in conjunction with their learning difficulty. Topical issues that are raised: – What is Education? From the viewpoint of famous thinkers. (Rousseau) – What are the myths surrounding Special Education? Why do they exist? – ADHD (Learning Difficulties-behavioural/emotional)– An example of one of the medical diagnoses given to a child who attends a Special school. – Reference to educational psychologists: Piaget, Bruner and Vygotsky and how they think children should be taught. – Teaching styles – particularly in creative (art/music) classes and science classes. Differences in techniques with each other, and with general teaching styles in mainstream education. Do they improve learning? – Could a philosophical based approach to teaching for Learning Difficulties be more beneficial? Or a philosophy class? – Is Special Education still discriminated against today?
In my project this year I have decided to investigate the area of youth culture in Twenty-First Century Britain. What are the factors which make our younger generation feel so misunderstood by their elders? Using various media sources I have drawn upon examples of contemporary British culture where the younger generation seem to be veering off any track of recognised social development. These areas include crime, identity, media, artistic expression, drug use, gangs and many more. In my final project I hope to find some links between the changes in youth culture as we know it and some philosophical concepts which I have studied during my degree. The first section of my project will concentrate on the growing gap between the attitudes and characteristics of the older generation and the younger generation. I hope to use Nietzsche’s work on the master and slave morality to explain the reversal of the attitudes towards the elderly from a stance of respect for experience and wisdom to one of burden and frustration. It seems we now value the progress, originality and vitality present in the youth of today as far more important than anything the older generation can offer unlike fifty years ago when children were taught to respect their elders. It seems this has resulted in a loss of communication and understanding between the two groups, where the older group was once seen as dominant and the younger group as passive, we now encourage the youth of today and the elderly are either forgotten about by the state, or at least take a secondary role in society. The next section will address the growing need for our youth to differentiate themselves into identity groups depending on their fashion, music, consumer or social tastes. Whether it is choosing a particular group of friends or enjoying a special past-time the younger generation seem intent on defining every individual into a certain group or trend. Such examples as “Goths”, “Chavs”, “Hippies” or “Ras” are common in most school playgrounds. I will also look at internet sites such as “Myspace.com” and other blog sites and using the work of Vattimo and his “Transparent Society” text I hope to gain a better understanding of the growing need for personal narratives in the Twenty-First Century and why our younger generation require these categories to “fit in” with society. The final section of my project will deal with the growing concern towards the anti-social behaviour displayed by the youth of today. This will include all aspects of daily life from truancy, graffiti, theft, drug use, to more serious crimes such as assault and rape. Why is it we feel the youngsters of Britain these days have a lack of respect for authority? Could it be linked with some changing social dynamics put forward by thinkers such as Beck and Giddens, or the increased pressure put on our children to follow a globally fast paced, informational, consumer driven society? In my final project I hope to address these issues and find some answers to some of the most pressing issues concerning Twenty-First Century Britain.
STAGE ONE. The primary stage of my project entailed research into the Baltic Art Factory and the Tate Modern Gallery. Comprising of multiple visits and enquiry into the intentions of the creators of both spaces. As well as research into the basic of museum and gallery theory. Bibliography includes: Smith, J. Alan, Baltic: The Art Factory. Gateshead: Baltic, 2002; Blazwick, Iwona and Wilson, Simon, Towards the Tate Modern. London: Tate Gallery Publishing, 2000 ;Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean, Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge. London; Routledge, 1992; Serota, Nicholas, Walter Neurath Memorial Lecture 1996: Experience or Interpretation: the Dilemma of Museums of Modern Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1996. STAGE TWO. The secondary stage evolved from my findings in the first and led to research into personal experience when one encounters and reflects upon a sole work of modern art (that of Rothko). I also investigated the possibility of change in that experience from modern to postmodern society and the bearing of social and educational background on the experience of visual art. Including the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, David Harvey and Arthur C. Danto.
Territory • I wished to look at those with autistic spectrum disorders and the treatment methods that are used to attempt to improve, or even cure, this condition. Philosophical Concepts • I looked at Sartre’s and Descartes theories on freedom in order to make a comparison between the two. Key texts used were ‘Nausea’ by Sartre and ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’ by Rene Descartes. • Also given consideration was Kant’s ‘Categorical Imperative’ taken from his work ‘Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals.’ This was a deontological ethical theory, concentrating on the act itself, not the consequences. • Kant’s theory was compared with a teleological theory. I looked at Mill’s Utilitarianism to show the contrast between looking at the consequences of the act, as opposed to the act itself. Aims and Objectives. • To reach a conclusion on how much freedom those with Autism need/should be given. • To discuss whether those who care for them have the right to make decisions on their behalf, and if so is this compromising their freedom • Look at whether it is the act itself or the consequences of the act that is important in making an ethical decision. • Decide whether we should follow Kant’s older ethical theory or Mill’s modernised version of Utilitarianism.
Themes: • In this project I look at how advertising, marketing and consumerism rule our culture, and the effects of this on the individuals existing within this society. The effects on the individual’s life such as freedom, happiness and identity. • The majority of most of our lives is spent working in order to make money, to purchase consumables. Consumables have become the indicators of status, rather than leisure time, or rank at work. For example what car you drive and labels you wear has become of incredible importance. • We now build up our identities through what we consume, and find a sense of freedom in the consumer arena. We feel that we are free to buy what we want and make personal choices, when in fact we are brainwashed and seduced by advertising and the mass media. • Is the world in which we are living a reality? Have we become so obsessed with objects and image that we do not know our real desires or what real fulfilment is? Consumer fulfilment is just postponing the emptiness of our lives, which is why we continue to consume, to constantly fill this void. Sources: I shall focus on three main thinkers, two sociologists Bunting and Bauman and the philosopher Debord. I shall also be comparing these thinkers to other philosophers throughout. • Bunting: I shall look at her book Willing Slaves, How the Overwork Culture is Ruining our Lives. She examines how we as a culture work exhaustive hours in order to consume, this desire to consume is installed in us through the media, advertising and marketing. • Bauman: I shall mainly be looking as his book Identity, and how our society saturated with the media and advertising has a huge effect on our identities. • Debord: I shall be looking at his book Society of the Spectacle, in which he critiques our culture. I shall be investigating what he means by the spectacle, and how he suggests that the society in which we live is not real due to advertising and the media. Our society is fake in a sense, and we have lost contact with our true desires and selves.
In this project I plan to look at the inter-faith town of Glastonbury and the varying beliefs and religions which make it into the new-age subculture it is today. Then I will look into various challenges to beliefs and religions in general looking at such scholars as Freud and Marx and how religion may merely act as a comforting device . Finally I will investigate in what respects such views of religious belief can be applied to these new-age religions which are strife in and around Glastonbury and how they may simply be acting as a refuge. I will also look at arguments and so-called ‘proof’ as to how this may not be the case, e.g. miracles, healing etc. Glastonbury has been a site of pilgrimage for hundreds of years with people claiming a magnetic pull which draws creative and spiritual people to the area. It has become an inter-faith town with many incomers settling of various faiths and beliefs, making Glastonbury one of the most spiritually diverse places in the country.During the last fifty years there has been an increased interest in new ways of finding a meaning in life other than that of following established religions. This new way of thinking involves many different paths and each one is seen as having its own unique value and truth. All of these paths have a common awareness of the divine, although this is expressed in different ways. It involves going about everyday life whilst incorporating spirituality into it as not to get wound up in the material things in life. People who want to live this way find themselves drawn to Glastonbury; perhaps because of the many myths and legends, perhaps because it is where you can find like-minded people, and many different channels of which to express your spirituality. Religion as comfort. Do humans follow religious beliefs because they want protection from the world which scares them? maybe because it gives their lives meaning and purpose and stops death being the end? Also it may give people faith that someone or something cares for them and that their life and the world has importance. Freud:” what the common man understands by his religion – with the system of doctrines and promises which on the one h and explains to him the riddles of this world with enviable completeness, and, on the other, assures him that a careful Providence will watch over his life and will compensate him in a future existence for any frustrations he suffers here.” Marx : For Marx, religion was an illusion. It dulls the pain of oppression for the proletariat but at the same time it blinds them from their true reality. Thus, it stops them from seeing what needs to be done to end their exploitation. Religion is a form of social control keeping the rich rich and the poor poor.“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed culture, the sentiment of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
The initial reception of D&G’s C&S was coloured by the twin presences of its authors and the situational context of the ’68 riots. Until Lyotard’s Libidinal Economy in ’74 the political interpretation seemed to close around an orthodox reading of Deleuze and Guattari rather than a reading of C&S. LE puts into play the structuring processes of desire on the political economy at micro-economic level. Stand must be taken: to side with which aspects of C&S? * Marxist interpretation of a capital (hard left) * Psychoanalytic relation of schitzo/capital (soft left) * Micro-economies of desire (libertarian) * Pro-capital destruction of despot (neo-cons). Current battle plays itself out across intellectual topographies (journal, academic publishing) and also Capital rips up every stable political settlement, but where does it head next… CCRU track capital-war-machine path of flight: 1. 1500. Leviathan. Command core: Northern Mediterranean . Target area: Americas. Mode: Mercantile. Epidemic opportunism, selective intervention, colonial settlement. 2. 1756. Capital. Command core: Britain . Target areas: Americas-South Asia. Mode: Thermo-industrial. Imperialism control. 3. 1884. Spectacle. Command core: USA-Germany . Target areas: Africa-Russia-Nodal:periphery. Mode: Electrocorporate. Cultural overcoding / selective extermination. 4. 1948. Videodrome. Command core: USA / Target areas: Expanded:nodal:periphery. Mode: Info Satellitic-supercorporate. Cultural programming / general extermination. 5. 1980. Cyberspace, Command core: USA-Japan-Germany / Target areas: Totalized extra metropolitan space. Mode: AI-hyper corporate. Gross-neurocontrol / intermittent media-format exemplary extermination, virtual biocide. 6. 1996. Babylon. USA-EU:2-China (metalocal command centres) / Totalized planetary space. Photonic-Net Hypercapital Neo-Organic. Neuroprogramming / AI:Capital:Media:Military fusion, constant entertainment extermination process.
Roy Keane is one of the greatest players of his generation and one of the most controversial. This essay aims to come to a conclusion as to whether Roy Keane is an Egoist or an Existentialist. Aims and objectives: To critically assess the philosophical ideas of Egoism and Existentialism; To relate these philosophical ideas to football and Roy Keane’s actions and what he has said; To look at the evidence put forward and come to a conclusion as to whether Roy Keane is an egoist or an existentialist
TERRITORY: MOTLEY CRUE. RESEARCH Research focused on reading autobiographies; The dirt (Motley Crue) and TommyLand (Tommy Lee, drummer of Motley Crue). Research also included interviews with local Newcastle based rock bands such as Firelight, Laconia and Fables Last Stand. DELEUZE & GUATTARI Early Motley Crue were minor, resisting and struggling against everything around them, including the present music scene and image. Later Motley Crue were major, as they grew successful and popularised a scene of sleazy hard glam rock. Motley Crue also exemplifies Deleuze & Guattari’s theory of desire as a productive force. FOUCAULT Foucault argued power and resistance were connected to immediacy and anti-authority struggles. Motley Crue were rebelling against everything present around them, with a strong attitude of anti-authority. Interestingly, as they got famous and successful they arguably became a source of authority for fans and inspired bands.
In recent times the body has regained value, the body is now used to sell, and we see massive amounts of advertising projecting the ‘perfect body’ causing the individual to strive for the ‘ideal’ self. “‘Looking good’ not only becomes necessary to achieve social acceptability but can become the key to a more exciting lifestyle.” Featherstone (1992) The body regaining value shows a shift away from the valuation of soul over body, and the religious connotation which that implies. Popular society has caught up with the shift we saw in philosophy with Nietzsche’s innovative views. In this project I have taken the work of Descartes who professed the ‘I think therefore I am’ maxim, devalued the material world and even our own bodies through his belief that everything could be doubted except the thinking thing. I have then compared this theory to Nietzsche’s valuation of the body and the actual world, through his belief that the soul is a function of the body. I have taken the work of a Modern artist, Helen Chadwick into account to show a contemporary viewpoint on how the body and soul argument has developed outside the realms of philosophy, she expresses through various, sometimes shocking pieces of art that the combined nature of the human body and soul. Through various cultural advancements we have moved away from our quest to spiritual enlightenment and have began our quest for bodily perfection and satisfaction of our desires.
Territory. I firstly looked into the fashion industry and how the use of fake fur was apparent within this industry. However, this lead me on to the enquiry of animal rights within today’s society and how this view has progressed or changed throughout time. Therefore my search extended to the implications of animal rights and how these rights are philosophically perceived through time, up until the present day. Aim My aim for this project is to understand how we, through time, have got to the age where real fur is being used within the fashion industry and how this choice has been affected by past philosophical thinkers and their influence on society. I will be looking at the relationship between humans and animals. I aim to introduce ethical thoughts and philosophical ideas and implement these into a comprehensible understanding of the change in attitude towards animal rights. Philosophers and sources. I am going to use Peter Singers All animals are equal, Mills’ Utilitarianism and Animal rights and Human Obligation by Tom Regan and Peter Singer. These will be my main texts. I will also use History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.
Can one consider the ethical viewpoint of both sides of terrorism? If terrorists believe their actions cause the greater overall good, would J.S. Mill condone them? Can the media be held responsible for the growth in terrorism? The growth in the media is consistent with the growth of terrorism, is this significant? The intention of terrorists is to reach a wide audience, does the media aid them in achieving their ends? What implications would censoring the media cause for us? Could it be considered to limit our freedom?
Introduction. The 20th century has arguably brought about the evolution, or rather devolution into, commodity and the spectacle. Life has become an experience not in itself, but through proxy. ‘Dead the sublime, evermore the ephemeral’ is an investigation into why the ephemeral seems more relevant than the sublime, and how a modern society reacts to such a notion. I will conduct this investigation with regards to travel, why people take on such an activity and how it has possibly changed the way we think. Instilled in travel is the quest for change, experience and rebellion, hence inherent in the concept of travel are other movements searching for the same ends. Punk is one of these movements, which I shall encounter in this project. Aims. In this project I aim to evoke the change in Avant-garde movements over the latter half of the 20th century. Focusing on the work of Ballard and Debord I will suggest why such Avant-garde movements arose and what they stood for, hence ultimately what they aimed to achieve through the movement. I will approach travel as a possible Avant-garde movement itself, in the dying age of rebellion, I will convey the issues travel raises when considered as a movement itself. I will ask questions such as will travel, like punk and other radical movements, be a movement itself; will it achieve its aims and will it ultimately become what it stands to reject? Concepts. I will be focusing on two philosophical thinkers, Guy Debord and J.G Ballard. They will provide my argument from three similar, yet different and individual perspectives. The concepts these thinkers evoke are the “Society of the Spectacle”, and the ‘Death of Affect’. I will investigate their ideas and explore whether they evoke meaning in relation to why we travel, the effect it has on us and other people.
The conception of the revolutionary vanguard has been pertinent in political thought since Plato’s Philosopher Kings. Indeed this notion has informed the superstructure of political and revolutionary theory and practice ever since its genesis. That is to say that there are a minority of elite, the ‘vanguard’, whom harbour superior sociological insight and who thus possess the intellectual capabilities to lead others to overcome their contextual peril. My central intention was thus to investigate the change in this very notion of the revolutionary vanguard. There have been a number of post-ideological reformulations regarding such a conception. However, placing such an exploration within the theoretical studies of my second year, I decided to examine several philosophers and protagonists of the vanguard, whom belong to the Marxist tradition, these being: Marx, Lenin and Gramsci. I then juxtaposed such theoretical assertions parallel to the post-ideological views of Zapatismo, which are the revolutionary views of the Mexican resistance movement known as the Zapatistas/EZLN. Territory & Change. My project thus traced the development of my central concept, being that of the vanguard, in revolutionary thought. Marx himself spoke little of the notion, yet the necessity of examining his thought derived from the work of Lenin and Gramsci whom pertain to the Marxist tradition. Both Lenin and Gramsci spoke of the notion of the Party, in which the dichotomy of the elite and the masses is both inherent and necessary for the revolution. Although Gramsci attempted to overcome its inherent elitism, he still necessitated the need of the leaders. However, within the contemporary thought of the Zapatistas, one can document an absolute abolition of the vanguard. One in which necessitates a ‘non-philosophy’ of listening-Zapatismo. These masked revolutionaries show that revolution does not have a face, but is a mirror in which greed is forced to see itself. They show us that we do not need a leader, but that we all may put on the mask of revolution and pertain with all those who dare say YA BASTA! (ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!)